Talk:Season 4/@comment-25353401-20140827025211
You can place me, firmly, in the I-approve-of-the-direction-the-series-has-gone camp. The end of Season 3 has really opened up some amazing possibilites. I do, however, have many questions, and possibly some answers, too. Mind that most if not all of what I say here is pure speculation. In no particular order, then: Brad Tonkin: His primary mission was allegedly to kill Alec Sadler. However, when he wakes from the coma in 2014, the only name he can think of is Kiera Cameron. He recognizes Matthew Kellog, but does not register the name Alec Sadler when Kiera asks him about it. It is revealed to us that he served under Kellog in 2039, so it would make sense that he might recognize him in 2014. His remembrance of Kiera's name may have to do with the strong yet hidden traumatic memory of killing Green Kiera. But if his primary mission was really to kill Alec, why wouldn't he recognize the name when Kiera asks him about it? It doesn't add up. The second part of his mission was to activate the beacon. Supposedly, this would be a way to tell if he had successfully altered the future by altering the present, but the mechanism behind this concept isn't adequately explained, and it is accepted too easily by Kiera. However, I think we can see that he is lying about something, when after he activates the beacon, he and Kiera embrace in a hug. During this hug, the camera pans onto his face, and the expression he makes shows something akin to regret -- that he is lying to Kiera, that he knows he is creating the very future he is from, and that he regrets that he has to lie to the woman he has grown to love. We also know that he worked very closely with Chen; we see this in the scene immediately after he and Chen killed Green Kiera, just moments before he (Brad) is hit by the truck. In the rescue operation of Red Alec, we see Chen freeing The Traveler. I suspect that Chen and Brad were working in collusion to achieve this very goal. When the lights in the city begin to dim, building by building, we see a scene where Chen is standing at a window watching, and The Traveler remarks "It has begun" (there is also a third, as-yet-unidentified/unidentifiable person standing with them). This scene would seem to suggest that bringing about the warlike 2039 future was indeed the very goal all along (after the Red Timeline collapses, that is). The question thus is, Where do allegiances lie? If Kellog in 2039 is a field commander and sends Brad back to 2014 to alter the timeline, and Brad makes contact with Red Chen, and Red Chen frees The Traveler, then it may be that Chen, Brad, Kellog, and The Traveler are all on the same side and all working for the same goal. Of course, as we have seen numerous times throughout all three seasons, allegiances may shift with ease, and motivations may not always be readily apparent. Sonya's Attempted Assassination of Dillon: This scene really confuses me. In the original 2077 timeline, a flashback reveals Sonya's backstory as a field medic/doctor who is helping the Gleaners. This is when she joins Liber8, with the guidance and pressure of Kagame. We find that she agrees to help the cause by employing her skills as a healer, not a killer. But when she is in VPD custody, she suddenly decides to detonate the explosives were either biometric implants or applied plastique, it is unclear which in an effort to kill someone she believes is worthy of a death sentence. It seems really outside of her character-nature to do this, given that her calling in life was to be a healer. It is doubly confusing because if she could have escaped custody, she and Travis would have eloped. She threw away that entire future, and all of her ethical responsibility, to kill one man? A One-Way Trip: This is a statement which is made by two different characters, amost verbatim. Lucas says it very early on, in either the first or second season. Brad also says it. This would seem to suggest that the nature of Time Travel, as it exists in this paradigm, is necessarily unidirectional: That it is possible to travel backwards in time, but that it is impossible to travel forward in time. It makes sense that such would be the case, because if the present is altered to a degree that the timeline into which one desires to go does not exist, it would be impossible for someone to travel to it. However, since the present is dictated by everything that has happened in the past, it is always possible to travel into that past. Since when you are in the past you can alter the future, it is quite likely that ever returning home is impossible, hence the expression that this (meaning the time-jump) was a one-way trip. I don't hold out any hope that Kiera will ever see Sam again, unless he time-jumps into the past before his timeline collapses. Just How Many Timelines Are There? Okay, this is a tough one. I am going to have to get back to this question at a later date. As it stands, this post is already probably TL;DR for most. TL;DR: Brad Tonkin worked with Kellog, Chen, and The Traveler to create the future from when he came. His mission was not to kill Alec, but to set off the "beacon" which was actually an indicator that The Traveler had been freed from Freelancer custody. Sonya's motivations are called into question since she, a doctor and a woman in love with a very available man, decided to commit suicide in an assassination attempt. It is only possible to travel backwards in time. It is impossible to travel forward.